Call me skeptical but ... if I were an insurance company that might have to pay out a big claim I would want to get the video footage and show the driver was at fault and not have to pay the claim.. Now, you might say that if the driver was doing something illegal, the insurance should not have not pay but how many of us read all the small print in our insurance documents and whats to say there isn't room for a clause like 'unless distracted' which is open to wide interpretation.. THEN its the poor smuck, who no fault of their own, gets hit and has to pay the repair bill because the other drivers insurance doesn't cover it and taking somebody to court when their net worth is negative is like getting blood out of a stone

As for a deterrent, bad drivers are just bad drivers... do you really think that the possibility of having a camera in the cockpit will stop little johnny or julie texting their friends about tonight's party or turning to check on a screaming baby in the back seat..

Once again we see the legislator spending time and money on an elegant solution to which we have yet to find a problem... and does California government have time to devote to this or should it concentrate on fixing the budget!

I think people should start carrying a small piece of black tape.

However, if you could hack into it with a heads up display then at least people could us it to put their make-up on without having to move the rear view mirror!

It just updates the existing law to "permit" video recording devices to be legally used in certain areas. Starts on page 3 line 24

"(13) A video event recorder with the capability of monitoring
driver performance to improve driver safety, which may be
mounted in a 7-inch seven-inch square in the lower corner of the
windshield farthest removed from the driver or in a 5-inch, in a
five-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield nearest to
the driver and outside of an airbag deployment zone. zone, or in
a 5-inch square mounted to the center uppermost portion of the
interior of the windshield. As used in this section, “video event
recorder” means a video recorder that continuously records in a
digital loop, recording audio, video, and G-force levels, but saves
video only when triggered by an unusual motion or crash or when
operated by the driver to monitor driver performance."

That said, I would not be surprised if it was lobbied by the insurance industry